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I really love the Baki franchise so I guess a score of 7 seems pretty harsh but I've got good reason for it.

To start with I guess I'll go into the Art. The animation started off really bad, being a mix of poor computer animation and CGI. It gets better right away when they lose the cheap CG fight scenes, but the animation quality doesn't look much better than the first seasons despite them being released seventeen years ago.

As far as Sound is concerned, it's fine. I was maybe hoping for a slightly better soundtrack but it's not bad enough to warrant much criticism.

Finally I ... want to get into the Story.

I like the plot. Seeing a switch from a tournament to an unstructured conflict between martial artists who escaped death row and the characters we've already come to know is an interesting change of pace. But the narrative structure for this series is god awful. It's just so very, very bad.

I'll admit that the series has always been a little slow paced. There were always flashbacks for each character and other characters commentating on the fights, but there was a good balance. Baki (2018) doesn't have that balance. When characters do fight, there is much less time dedicated to them actually fighting than there is for flashbacks or explaining their weapons. If a fight scene lasts less than half the time it takes for one character to give a science lesson about how he uses wire as a weapon, something has gone wrong.

It's not just that the show spends more time cutting away from fights than it does showing characters duke it out, it's the way the fights are broken up and interrupted. In one episode there is about 4 minutes of screen time of two characters fighting, meanwhile it is broken up in several parts by ten minutes worth of flashbacks, some of which was completely unnecessary.

This kind of story boarding really brings down the overall enjoyment of a series. At this point I feel that because of the slow pacing of Baki, the only good way to watch it would be to wait until it's finished airing and watch each episode back to back.

Imagine a world in need of a chosen hero to go on an epic quest and defeat a great evil.

Maybe he was picked by a holy sword, part of an ancient prophecy or summoned to a different world to battle an evil Sorcerer, defeat a Demon Lord or rescue a princess.

Now imagine that there are many dimensions and alternate universes filled with worlds in need of heroes, and each of those chosen to be “The Hero” are connected across space and time by their own version of Reddit.


Hero Union BBS is just as its title implies. It’s about a Bulletin Board ... System for Heroes.

Active Heroes, those who are still on their journey, and Retired Heroes who have already completed their quest, can create threads and talk with each other. Heroes ask other heroes for tips to help them beat their world’s boss, and a few Retired Heroes look after others by giving advice or by providing emotional support and encouragement.

Each chapter of Hero Union BBS is a story of a different hero, told via the conversations they have in threads with other heroes. The stories are wacky and are usually about problems you wouldn’t think heroes would face, such as accidentally being summoned as the hero in an old video game because of a glitch, being a part of a dysfunctional party, or having far too many bosses to beat.

The characters in Hero Union come in all types, a wide variety of heroes of different backgrounds. Some of these chosen heroes are Knights, Nobles, Shrine Maidens and Mages, but others are Office Workers, Students, Robots, even a Demon Lord. Because each chapter is a new story, new characters are introduced regularly, but there are many reoccurring characters. And they are all fun and likable.

There are a lot of funny manga out there about heroes going on a journey fight Demons or are summoned to different worlds, but Hero Union BBS is a bit different from them. It’s structured as a conversation and tells the stories of dozens of different heroes.

It’s a very funny and enjoyable manga and it's definitely worth reading.

If you found Rikudou after reading a different boxing series you have probably realized from the synopsis that Rikudou is going to be dark.

And if you are now reading reviews, wondering whether or not you should read Rikudou, first consider what you're expecting from this series.

Are you looking for a boxing manga that has the same "Give it everything you've got" feeling like in Hajime no Ippo or maybe something like Ashita no Joe? If you are, then you need to understand that Rikudou is going to be a little bit different from them.

The first thing to understand about Rikudou is that ... it is not a Shounen, it's a Seinen. To be safe I'll explain that the difference between these two is that Shounen's target a younger male audience while Seinen's target men ages 18 to 40.

That said, Rikudou is going to be more mature than a Shounen manga but more importantly it's going to feel different than the Shounen action/sports/boxing mangas which you may or may not be familiar with.


STORY

This story of this manga is about Riku Azami, a boy born into an abusive environment and after the death of his father, he experienced greater traumas. His past is the reason he became a boxer. The powerlessness he felt as a child is his motivation in and out of the ring to become stronger.

I believe that the reason Riku chooses to fight as a boxer isn't that he loves the sport, but because he can only find comfort by constantly proving to himself that he's growing stronger.

However his boxing career doesn't bring him complete peace of mind. It may distract him from his past, but it forces him to make difficult choices. Beating other boxers, possibly ending the careers of fighters who are trying to escape their darkness or feed their family means victory comes with a sense of guilt. But to keep his past behind him Riku has to win whether or not he wants to beat the man standing in front of him.

Both victory and defeat have their consequences. And that makes the fighting in this different from other boxing manga you may have read.

In many ways this is a story about a broken child trying to overcome his past, and keep himself from falling apart, through professional boxing.

However at first glance this series may seem like it's just trying to be edgy, but I believe that it goes deeper than that by surrounding itself with the psychological conflicts of Riku Azami and his attempt to find solace from his painful memories.


ART

I want to talk about the Art in Rikudou. I actually really like the author's art style but what I think is worth mentioning is how well it suits this manga. The story and art sync with each other so well that I wanted to go over both of them in this review.

The way the characters and backgrounds are drawn is expressive and sets the mood of the story. The shading is very present which might make it look less "clean" than what you're used to, and without thinking about it some people may dislike this about this manga, but I believe that the shading adds to the overall atmosphere of Rikudou.

Out of curiosity and slight boredom I've gone through some pages and edited out a lot of the shading, but not so much that it looked unnatural, and I found that the mood changes slightly when you take away Rikudou's shaded atmosphere.

Maybe I've read too much into it, but I think that the heavy shading is more than just this author's art style, but intentionally done to emphasize the story and tone of the manga.


A WARNING

Given the nature of the story, this manga may make you feel uncomfortable at times but if you are able to read things like this, you will probably find this series enjoyable just as I have.

I've probably listened/watched to this a few dozen times since I heard it when I started Hunter X Hunter (2011) In my opinion it's the best ending theme HXH has had so far.

Not too many people write reviews for these types of things since it's pretty hard to say what you think of the story when it's an animation for a song.

All I can say is I enjoy the song, the art/animation is really nice so I actually watch it instead of listening to it while browsing through another tab. It's cool seeing the different characters running around and it makes you think ... that there's something going on there.

In short, Japan's Smurfs are 10000% more badass than ours.

As for the dub, I would say it's not as bad as people will say it is.

When it came to minor supporting characters, particularly the unnamed unimportant, I've heard better in youtube fandubs. But when it came to the important and main characters, they did a pretty good job. Especially in Izayoi, the over powered, violence addicted bastard you can't help but love and Fan Favorite.

For those who have not seen it subbed and have no attachment or impression on the Japanese cast (And lets face it you probably don't speak Japanese and can't truly pick up on all the emotion in the character' voices) ... it's probably not going to be such a bad expiriance.

overall I would rate the dub's watch value Medium. Though my love for Izayoi tells me I should rate it Medium-High.